Why aren’t they vaccinating school staff?

[Billi77]

I’m sure this has been asked already, but I can’t find the reasons. Especially when schools are the apparent ‘vector’ for transmission.
And it’s clear that the vaccinated would be way less contagious, even if they do pick up the virus. And in sinister PR terms, wise for the government to be ‘rewarding’ people whose jobs are actually putting them and their loved ones in danger.

And yes indeed the odd person under 50 who has a bad time will be able to get Rolls Royce care that they deserve because the healthcare resources oxygen, skilled staff, ventilators, ECMO will be there for them.

Right now we are getting to a place where those resources are stretched in some areas and soon people will be getting less than perfect care and rationing decisions will need to be made.

Because we need to protect our most vulnerable first. That is, our most likely to need hospital treatment. We need to keep our health service functioning

Why is this so hard to understand

It's not about valuing any one section of the population over another.

It's ALL about reducing and minimising demand on NHS beds - 80 plus year olds are much more likely to become seriously ill and need admission into those beds - and so on, down the age groups.

The only blip is the CEV, who come into the group "70 Yr olds", regardless of actual age.

The less administratively cumbersome the vaccine programme is, after the above taken into account, the quicker it gets done - which ultimately benefits everyone.

Elephant your strategy would only work if we banned all over 80s from being admitted to hospital

That was mooted a bit in the first wave and went down like a lead balloon. Lots of people very unhappy about 'enforcing DNAR'

When push comes to shove and it's your own relative very few people are willing to accept them not being admitted and just getting palliative care at home especially when 80% of even the over 80s survive.

Hard to say they should not be offered anything. Can't really get oxygen therapy in a care home (you'd have one bottle for emergencies but no piped supply). If you admit them then quickly beds are overwhelmed.

Scottish school staff are ok, they got added to the priority lists today.

I’m 55 and in school in England tomorrow. The date calculator says October for me.

@BluebellsGreenbells

Who would you put them ahead of in the list detailed above?

Anyone who can safely isolate and be shielded

That's no one then. The most vulnerable are catching it from their carers in their homes, or in care homes or hospitals. You can't make them safe if they need any kind of care/support.

What about teachers in special schools who are refusing to work on union advice. A huge proportion of children there can’t access remote learning so are yet again being left without any educational provision. Couldn’t those teachers be vaccinated?

Correct if I'm wrong but even if your vaccinated you can still pass it on, so what's the point in schools?

Didn't finish. The reason schools are shut is to stop transmission and the vaccine doesn't protect against that.

@CookEatRepeat

This is what Sturgeon said:

“Just as the last places we ever want to close are schools and nurseries - so it is the case that schools and nurseries will be the first places we want to reopen as we re-emerge from this latest lockdown.

They remain our priority.

That is why we are considering whether and to what extent - consistent with our overall duty to vaccinate the most vulnerable first in line with JCVI recommendations - we can achieve vaccination of school and childcare staff as a priority. Many teachers will of course be vaccinated over coming weeks as part of the JCVI priority list.”

I really don’t believe that they will be vaccinating teachers (unless they are CEV) above other high risk groups.

Food retail staff, and some other other vital public facing services, would be vaccinated before teachers.